WHAT DOES GOD'S LAW HAVE TO DO WITH LOVE?
Sometimes God's Law and God's love are spoken about as though they are opposites.
Law sounds like rules.
Love sounds like relationship.
But is that how Scripture speaks about them?
Before we decide, let's go back to Torah and see what God actually says.
Let's open the Word.
LOVE GOD
Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Begin with the words Moses gives to Israel.
Read slowly.
Notice the order.
Before Moses speaks about keeping God's words before them throughout their lives, he says:
Love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
Then notice what comes next.
God's words are to be on their hearts.
They are to teach them to their children.
They are to speak about them when they sit at home, when they walk along the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up.
- According to this passage, what does loving YHWH have to do with His words?
- Where are God's words supposed to be?
- How thoroughly are those words meant to become part of everyday life?
- Does this passage present love for God and His instructions as competing ideas?
FOR YOUR GOOD
Deuteronomy 10:12–13
Now listen again to Moses.
Watch how these ideas appear together:
Fear YHWH.
Walk in His ways.
Love Him.
Serve Him.
Keep His commandments.
Then notice the words at the end:
“for your good.”
- What relationship do you see between loving God, walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments?
- According to this passage, for whose good were these commandments given?
- If YHWH says His commandments are “for your good,” what does that tell you about the heart of the One giving them?
This is something worth remembering:
Behind every instruction of God is the love of God.
God's commandments are not competing with His love.
His instructions show His people how to walk in His ways.
But Torah doesn't only teach us how to love God.
It also teaches us how to love one another.
WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE?
Leviticus 19:9–18
Read the entire passage before focusing on verse 18.
Watch what YHWH tells His people to do.
Leave something for the poor and the sojourner.
Don't steal.
Don't deceive.
Don't lie.
Don't oppress your neighbor.
Don't withhold a worker's wages.
Don't take advantage of the deaf or the blind.
Judge fairly.
Don't slander.
Don't stand idly by when your neighbor's life is in danger.
Don't hate your brother in your heart.
Don't take vengeance.
Don't hold a grudge.
And then:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
- What did YHWH teach His people to do before He said, “Love your neighbor as yourself”?
- Does Torah merely command Israel to love—or does it show them what love looks like?
- Which of these instructions protects someone who is vulnerable?
- Which protects someone's property, livelihood, reputation, or life?
- What does this teach you about the purpose behind God's instructions?
LOVE THE STRANGER
Leviticus 19:32–34
Keep reading in the same chapter.
YHWH tells Israel how to treat the elderly and the stranger living among them.
Then He says something striking about the stranger:
“You shall love him as yourself.”
And He reminds Israel why:
They had once been strangers in Egypt.
- How is Israel commanded to treat the stranger?
- Why does YHWH remind them of Egypt?
- How might remembering what God had done for them affect the way they treated someone else?
- What does this tell you about the relationship between receiving God's mercy and showing love to others?
NOW LISTEN TO YESHUA
Matthew 22:34–40
Much later, Yeshua is asked:
“Which is the great commandment in the Law?”
Pay careful attention to His answer.
He does not invent two new commandments.
He goes back to Torah.
He points to loving YHWH with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Then He points to loving your neighbor as yourself.
And then He says:
“On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
- Where did Yeshua get the two commandments He identifies?
- Is Yeshua replacing God's commandments with love—or is He showing us what God's commandments are ultimately about?
- What have Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19 already shown you about the relationship between love and Torah?
- What do you think Yeshua means when He says the Law and the Prophets “hang” on these two commandments?
LOVE AND OBEDIENCE
John 14:15
1 John 5:1–3
Now move forward.
Listen to the way Yeshua speaks about love and obedience.
Then listen to John.
Ask whether something has changed.
Has love now become an alternative to obedience?
Or are love and obedience still connected?
- According to Yeshua, what relationship exists between loving Him and keeping His commandments?
- How does John describe the love of God?
- Does John describe God's commandments as burdensome?
- After everything you have read, does Scripture place love on one side and commandments on the other?
RETURN TO THE QUESTION
You began with a question:
What does God's Law have to do with love?
You have now seen love and commandments together in Torah.
You have watched Torah give practical shape to loving your neighbor.
You have heard Yeshua say that the Law and the Prophets hang upon love for God and love for neighbor.
And you have heard love and obedience connected again in the words of Yeshua and John.
So return to the question.
- Does God's Law compete with His love?
- Or does God's Law teach His people how to love?
- If God's commandments teach us how to love Him and love our neighbor, can we define biblical love while ignoring His instructions?
- What does this change about the way you hear the word “Law”?
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE READ?
You have seen that Scripture does not place God's love on one side and His commandments on the other.
So consider one final question:
If God's instructions teach us how to love Him and love our neighbor, should we be looking for reasons not to keep them—or asking how to walk in them?
Don't answer because of what we believe.
Go back to the Scriptures you have read.
Let them shape your answer.
What will you do with what you have discovered?
Don't rush past that final question.
Many of us learned to hear “law” and “love” as opposites.
Scripture gives us a reason to look again.
You may have reached a conclusion.
You may have discovered that an assumption needs to be reconsidered.
Or you may still have questions.
That's okay.
The goal is not simply to change our vocabulary.
It is to learn to see God's instructions through the character of the God who gave them—and then decide how we will respond to what we have read.